Axelrod: How could Obama know what his underlings were doing when the government’s so big?

posted at 12:41 pm on May 15, 2013 by Allahpundit

Via NRO, I flagged this in the last thread but it needs its own post. How desperate are O’s cronies that they’re now willing to dance on this rhetorical and ideological landmine in the name of protecting him? Conn Carroll flags this passage from Politico’s piece today about the dangerous new narrative developing for The One:

The uproars over alleged politicization of the IRS and far-reaching attempts to monitor journalists and their sources have not been linked directly to Obama. But it does not strain credulity to suggest that Obama’s well-known intolerance for leaks, and his regular condemnations of conservative dark-money groups, could have filtered down to subordinates.

The narrative is ideological. For five years, this president has been making the case that a growing and activist government has good intentions and can carry these intentions out with competence. Conservatives have warned that government is dangerous, and even good intentions get bungled in the execution. In different ways, the IRS uproar, the Justice Department leak investigations, the Benghazi tragedy and the misleading attempts to explain it, and the growing problems with implementation of health care reform all bolster the conservative worldview.

John Dickerson argues that right now Obama’s making the case for conservatism better than Romney ever did. All of which is fine, but obvious: Of course an explosion of government scandal will tend to vindicate a worldview that’s suspicious of government. What’s significant about Axelrod’s defense of O is that he’s pointing to the size of government as a structural reason for why scandal might proliferate, which is downright Reaganesque as a critique of the federal leviathan. The bigger the government gets, the less accountability there’ll be. That’s conservatism 101.

The perverse twist is that he’s using that logic to exculpate Obama. Try to get your mind around that. A guy who helped O win two presidential elections by arguing that government needs to do more, especially for health insurance (which will soon be partly under the jurisdiction of the IRS, natch), is now trying to absolve Obama of responsibility for his underlings’ malfeasance by suggesting that … no one can really control a government this big. Obama’s off the hook, thanks to his dogged efforts to make the country even more ungovernable than it already is. Say what you will about Ax but let no man question the elephantine size of his balls.

He’s right. There should be a constitutional amendment that reserves powers not explicitly granted to the federal government to the states or to the people. That would keep the fed from growing too big. Also, the powers should be divided between three branches so that each provides a check to the other and no single branch grows so powerful that it can’t control itself.

Axelrod: How could Obama know what his underlings were doing when the government’s so big?

I WOULD LIKE TO OFFER BOTH OBAMA AND AXELROD A GREAT MEASURE OF THANKS FOR DEMONSTRATING WHY CONSERVATIVES’ CONCERNS OVER BIG GOVERNMENT & OUR DESIRE FOR A MUCH SMALLER GOVERNMENT WITH MORE LIMITED POWER IS SO VALID!

The Government doesn’t matter. The people running it do. And that’s why you need to vote Democrat. Because anyone else might do something you don’t want them to. They are unaccountably accountable but only when they need to be held accountable, and even then, its not their fault the dang thing is too big, or small, whatever one gives them more power to fix the problem they caused.

It’s a laugh riot to hear this liberals, in trying to defend Obama, making our case for us; this is what we Conservatives have been talking about since 1967. So desperate are they to defend and protect their precious Obama, these liberals don’t even grasp the import of all they’re saying.

Axelrod – “How can he know what this bloated imposing government is doing when there are so many golf weekends, talk shows and basketball games to get to? I think some people just do not understand Obama’s burdens.”

He’s right. There should be a constitutional amendment that reserves powers not explicitly granted to the federal government to the states or to the people. That would keep the fed from growing too big. Also, the powers should be divided between three branches so that each provides a check to the other and no single branch grows so powerful that it can’t control itself.

tdarrington on May 15, 2013 at 12:46 PM

Well, it seems like it could work if you add on a few parts where the federal government is responsible for Social Security, food for the poor, Education, the Environment, Housing, and cradle to grave healthcare.

Because we care. We care so much we have to do it, even if it is done badly.

Axelrod: How could Obama know what his underlings were doing when the government’s so big?

Der Fuhrer Dear Leader does not have time to spend on bureaucratic details. But you can be sure that when he learns mistakes have been made he will quickly get to the bottom of it, correct them, and dispense firm disciple where needed.

And there’s this phenomena, which basically describes how the Chicago Machine operates …

The government of Nazi Germany gradually formed into a process known as “working towards the Führer”. Although Adolf Hitler was the ideological force behind the Third Reich, as leader of the country, he often deferred making decisions, avoided clear delegation and allowed subordinates to compete with one another, especially in the pre-war years. Therefore, a system of government was formed whereby leading Nazi officials were forced to interpret Hitler’s speeches, remarks and writings on government policies and turn them into programs and legislation. Any government member could take one of Hitler’s comments, and turn it into a new law, of which Hitler would casually either approve or disapprove when he finally heard about it. This became known as “working towards the Führer”, as the government was not a co-ordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of individuals each trying to gain more power and influence over the Führer…

The process allowed more unscrupulous and ambitious Nazis to get away with implementing the more radical and extreme elements of Hitler’s ideology…. Protected by Joseph Goebbels’ extremely effective propaganda machine, which portrayed the government as a dedicated, dutiful and efficient outfit…

Through staffing of most government positions with National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) members, by 1935 the German national government and the Nazi Party had become virtually one and the same…

You know what we need…we need regulations to control the actions of government agencies, and a new government agency to write and enforce those regulations. It would be a cabinet level post called the Agency Security Agency. The ASA would be responsible for watching all of the other government agencies and reporting any nefarious activities back to the president. It would need at least 400 billion annual funding paid for by a tax on government interactions. Every time a government employee does something for you, you would pay a $0.10 tax. (insert joke about the agency being woefully underfunded here. The problem is not that the government is too big, the government just doesn’t have enough regulators and oversight. The ASA will correct that.

Axelrod: How could Obama know what his underlings were doing when the government’s so big?

As pointed out, that is why Obama has a hand-pikced Cabinet who are placed in charged of their own departments. They, in turn, run those departments & report back to Obama in Cabinet meetings.

Obama put Holder – who has a long history of controversy, hiding things, & scandal – in charge of the DOJ. Holder goes on to perpetrate 3 Felony Counts of Perjury before Congress, is only save because the Justice Department refuses to do its job by pressing charges/enforcnig the law, & Holder becomes the 1st Atty General in U.S. History to be Censured (for his crimes)….AND…Holder is now up to his arse in both the IRS & Wire Tap (a la Nixon) Scandal.

Obama made Hillary ‘Most qualified to answer the 3am phone call’ Clinton in charge of the State Dept that has 20 Embassies overrun on the anniversary of 9/11, orders Marines at the Cairo Embassy not to carry live ammo, refuses to provide required security to an Ambassador who is attacked twice previously before by terrorists, & (in)directly causes the deaths of 4 Americans, to include the 1st Ambassador in over 30 years…

Obama placed lil’ Timmy ‘Tax Cheat’ Geithner in charge of the Treasury, the department Obama is now throwing under the bus as being responsible for the IRS scandal…which has been going on -as we know now -for 2 years.

According to Obama, none of these Cabinet Members knew what was going on in their own departments, never told him what was going on, & therefore he never knew. Incompetence, ignorance, scaldal-plagued Cabinet picks to begin with, all ending up with an avalanche of scandal, corruption, & crime that we are now watching…

If for no other reasons than they were incompetent & incapable of running their own departments these Cabinet members need to be fired &/or punished to the full extent of the law. For continuing their past scandal-plagued careers, continuing to spread their incompetence & corruption into future political positions they should be blacklisted, banned from holding any further political office. And jail time should not be off the table yet.

Obama, who appointed all of these clowns, who has failed so miserably at almost all levels in his administration, who has proven so inept & incapable of running the government, a feat every other President has been able to do before him, to some degree proven to be higher than he has been able to so far, should be immediately IMPEACHED, removed for criminal negligence, incompetency, ignorance, criminal compliance, & for being ‘where the buck stops’!

Axelrod: How could Obama know what his underlings were doing when the government’s so big?

Basically, the “if only Stalin Obama knew” defense.

However, would anyone dare to do anything they thought would displease Stalin Comrade O? Would Comrade O’s underlings do something they thought he would disapprove of? Or did they think they were doing his bidding? Assuming so, why would they think that?

This is like the 2012 campaign all over again, with Obama and his cronies just making up stuff and hoping something sticks. I’m surprise Stephanie Cutter hasn’t crawled out from whatever rock she’s currently under to offer some more absurd excuses for this administration.

Buses of union thugs sent to private banking execs’ lawns.
Buses of union thugs sent to the Wisconsin state house.
Attacks from the Oval Office on private individuals (everyone of which Barky got his azz handed to him … but it didn’t stop the idiot).

Joe the Plumber’s private government information rifled through and released to the media not two days after Barky stumbled onto Joe’s lawn and uttered his idiotic, anti-American, third-world “spread the wealth”.

Pictures of Gitmo interrogators given to terrorists.

And on and on and on.

It’s well past jail time for Barky and his whole criminal administration. Well past.

We have what appears to be the staffing of the US government civil service with political partisans who have seemingly demonstrated a willingness to use the organs of government to punish political opponents.

The Democratic Party has become corrupt to its very core. It is little more than gangsters at this point. That party needs to be purged from power at all levels; federal, state, and local.

I have lost any faith in the notion of impartial, fair government services as long as Democrats are in control. Other political parties seem to have much less tolerance for this sort of corruption of the civil services, but for the Democrats, it seems to be a primary strategy.

Oh that’s rich. The president had no idea of the scope of government when he decided to run? And once he got in office he’s done everything he can to increase the role of government at ever turn? Look what he’s done just to Homeland Security alone?

The reason these scandals are being reported is because we are so transparent!” Right!

Deano1952 on May 15, 2013 at 12:50 PM

It’s not a bad idea to review the track record here:

Fast & Furious- An EO was issued to protect Eric Holder from Congress.

IRS- The only reason for the IG investigation was Congressional pressure who were getting complaint after complaint about harrassment from the IRS over their tax-exempt status. They even created special units to track the pro-Israel Jews.

AP- Secret seizure of reporters personal phone records and that of their sources screams transparency and First Amendment rights. /

HHS- Illegal collection of money to fund Obamacare.

Benghazi- The administration still hasn’t come clean about that one. They continue to stick to talking points and continue to claim that the rat-eared passerby called it an act of terrorism from the very beginning.

AND ON-DECK:

EPA- Looks like they were giving some groups the same treatment that the IRS did.

Obama’s ENTIRE political career was built on leaking confidential and often “sealed” information on political opponents. That’s how he got elected in Illinois. He was running well behind in every single election at the state level until information was “leaked” about his opponents. It is how he operates.

What happened when Joe the Plumber spoke up about him in Toledo, OH?

You won’t find any smoking gun emails in the official archives. The good stuff is probably sitting in gmail accounts and has likely been deleted already.

The uproars over alleged politicization of the IRS and far-reaching attempts to monitor journalists and their sources have not been linked directly to Obama.

Last night Obama released this statement:

I have now had the opportunity to review the Treasury Department watchdog’s report on its investigation of IRS personnel who improperly targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. And the report’s findings are intolerable and inexcusable. The federal government must conduct itself in a way that’s worthy of the public’s trust, and that’s especially true for the IRS. The IRS must apply the law in a fair and impartial way, and its employees must act with utmost integrity. This report shows that some of its employees failed that test.

I’ve directed Secretary Lew to hold those responsible for these failures accountable, and to make sure that each of the Inspector General’s recommendations are implemented quickly, so that such conduct never happens again. But regardless of how this conduct was allowed to take place, the bottom line is, it was wrong. Public service is a solemn privilege. I expect everyone who serves in the federal government to hold themselves to the highest ethical and moral standards. So do the American people. And as President, I intend to make sure our public servants live up to those standards every day.